FORT SILL, Okla., Dec. 13, 2018 -- "Salute Battery," B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Field Artillery paid tribute to the memory of former President George Herbert Walker Bush here Dec. 6, with a 21-round salute at noon and a 50-round salute to each of the 50 states at 5 p.m.

"What we had today is paying respects in accordance with regulation to the office of the President of the United States," explained Lt. Col. Lazander Tomlinson, 2-2nd FA commander. "Frankly, it's an opportunity to pay homage and honor the office of the president of the United States."

B/2-2nd FA performs a ceremonial function on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day and also when a former president dies.

It's been 12 years since the death of former President Gerald Ford in December 2006, and no one who had the privilege of rendering honors back then is still with the battalion to pass on the knowledge of what to do.

"It's a big deal for us, sir. We always shoot for post-wide events. This is a national event," said Capt. Andrew Guglielmo, B/2-2nd FA commander. "It's something that we've always talked about, especially when the First Lady (Barbara Bush) passed. We realized that we have to be ready. So we researched the regulation, made sure we understood what we had to do."

The captain said that in terms of importance, this was on par with Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, so the fire crews take extra pride in being part of it.

Tomlinson said there are only two salute batteries in the Army's inventory.

Not only does Fort Sill's salute battery shoot normal artillery missions in support of the Army Field Artillery School, but it performs a mission that only one other organization in the active Army does, and that's for the Military District of Washington, D.C.

Guglielmo said the Presidential Salute Battery in Washington is an infantry unit, so it has 11-C mortarmen in the 11-series of military occupational specialties (MOSes) firing mortars.

"We're the only 13-series. So we're the only field artillery salute battery," he explained.

His battery is fielded with the 105-mm M101A1 howitzer, which is a renamed M2A2 first used in World War II. The seven assigned to his battery were manufactured in the 1950s and are each named for a Medal of Honor recipient from Oklahoma.

"We actually have contact with some of those families, so that we can try and get them out here, so they can pay homage to their relatives as we do every time we salute," the captain said.

Only six of the howitzers are used for most ceremonies. The seventh is a reserve that allows the Soldiers to rotate their howitzers for service. Some taskings require only one or two howitzers.

It takes a total of 30 Soldiers -- more than half of the battery -- to execute missions like the two on Dec. 6.

"We mix and match our people. We sometimes have cannon crewmembers that normally are on howitzers, but we also have fire direction specialists. We also have supply that man these howitzers, because it's a one-team effort. It doesn't matter what your background is or what your job normally is on a day-to-day (basis); we're all the salute battery regardless of your primary military occupation," Guglielmo said.

On Dec. 3 the salute battery executed a 21-round salute in memory of the former president, but spaced those rounds out at 30-minute intervals from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Only one gun was in use that day, but different crews fired on it throughout the day.

"We rotated. We see it as an honor to be a part of such a notable occasion, and because of that, we wanted to make sure that everybody had a part to play. We rotated every few hours between crews," Guglielmo said.

"We didn't stop our mission (of direct support to the schoolhouse). That's why we had to make sure we had a rotation, and that played a part in it as well."

For the noontime 21-gun salute, the rounds honoring the former president had to be one minute apart. So Guglielmo raised one of his conspicuously white-gloved hands and dropped it as the signal to fire the next round when the appropriate amount of time had elapsed.

The 5 p.m. salute to the states went much faster because the blasts came five seconds apart, and the captain didn't have to give hand-signals. For a normal ceremony they're even quicker -- just three seconds between rounds.

The battery fired live rounds when supporting young lieutenants during last week's Redleg War on the West Range. For ceremonial occasions it uses blanks -- wax-filled rounds. A salute crew consists of four people, the section chief who's responsible for that section and three cannon crewmembers: the gunner pulling the lanyard, the No. 1 man who loads the howitzer, and the ammo bearer who's on his knee handing each round up to the No. 1 man to load.